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Comment by zuzululu | Hacker News Reader

I applaud mistral's efforts but reading this release made me realize that Europe is far far behind and that once the gap is solidified I don't think its recoverable in the same way Canada's brain drain had on its economy

The best and the brightest from Europe have no incentive to build in Europe when they can do it in America and be compensated and treated far better

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At this point I wouldn’t move to USA if you paid me double the salary. There are more things in life than money.

That said, if (or when) the progress of the LLMs flatten out, then I think even Europe can catch up in a few years. If they don’t, and that seems unlikely to me, if the required compute needs to increase at the rate it does today, then I am not sure any of us can predict where society ends up.

I think there is a non-zero chance that Europe stumbled into an optimal scenario where they avoided all the losses incurred by US companies, but still benefit from the research. Having said that, doing so would require moving at the exact right time.

I wouldn't underestimate the capability of European companies to build rock-solid industries on established science. We may not be the pioneers wedging new product categories into the market, but there are millions of highly qualified people here, working hard every day.

For example, Mercedes autonomous driving team is moving ahead at glacial speed, but the system they have so far is excellent and reliable. I'd prefer that over the sad joke Tesla is promoting any day.

Sure some people like to make less money and pay more taxes for ideological reasons. I respect that.

I like to make less money and pay more taxes for higher quality of life reasons. Sure I could go to America and have more many in my pocket by eating mcdonalds every day, but I'd rather eat amazing high quality food and have less money in my pocket.

what country is that ? I'm just curious as most European coworkers I have spoken to have not so nice things to say about EU and their country.

I live in Sweden, but would happily live in most European countries. Yes, some are less well functioning, and many that have joined the EU have significantly improved their living standard (not always counted in GDP), since joining the EU. There are always things to complain about in any country, and the hardest thing for most people to do is actually make a fair comparison, as they haven’t lived in another country.

I have lived in the UK, in the US and spent significant time running a startup in the Netherlands, and half the family lives there. I have relatives in Spain and in Switzerland. I have helped setup startup subsidiaries on all continents.

Fortunately for Europe, the US is doing its best to make itself both an undesirable and unavailable immigration target.

As somebody who moved to the US and then back to Europe again, you may get more money there, but you'll pay for it with a much worse environment and lifestyle.

Life's not all about the number on your bank account. Once you're past a certain level (which a competent engineer can easily reach in Europe as well), the marginal utility of money diminished quite quickly.

treated far better != earn more money

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